Origination

The House of Representatives late Thursday passed a one-year extension of the National Flood Insurance Program -- in plenty of time to avoid an October shutdown of property guarantees cherished by mortgage bankers and Realtors alike.

The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee is trying to secure a one-year extension of the $729,750 GSE loan limit in a continuing resolution the Senate is expected to pass next week.

Fannie Mae is offering seller assistance incentives on its bank-owned properties listed on the company’s REO website, while expanding the initiative to offer an incentive to real estate agents and brokers.

PROVIDENCE, RI—Lenders were presented with a glimmer of hope last week that the Federal Housing Administration may be somewhat flexible when it issues a final rule later this year regarding seller concessions.

Mortgage vulture fund investor Wilbur Ross has agreed to invest several million dollars in The Capital Markets Cooperative, taking a minority interest in the firm, which caters to both depositories and nonbank residential lenders.

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Dorado Corp. has received a Notice of Allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the method it created for processing a loan application (including mortgages). The notice means the government is likely to issue a patent.

All primary market mortgage rates except those for one-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate ARMs held steady for the week ending Sept. 23, according to new figures compiled by Freddie Mac.

After plunging 27% in July, sales of existing single-family homes rebounded 7.4% in August as buyers took advantage of historically low mortgage rates and affordable prices.

Bank of America has decided to merge its Home Loan Services affiliate in Pittsburgh, a subprime specialty servicer, into its main servicing operation.